Birthday Jung SuWon Style, part 3

And here is the conclusion to the previous story, including another "story within the story".....

Moments like this are my biggest reward. To show people the power they have in them and for them to start seeing even the smallest glimpse of that, the possibilities ahead of them, what more can I ask for?

In this case, it got even better. His parents and older brother also train, and were there, clapping and expressing their joy. And grandmother came running into the Do Jang, saying how she was so grateful to David for bringing her to his school, and how happy she was to meet me.

And John also has a great story. He used to be addicted to video games, playing them for many hours a day, to the extent that his schoolwork was suffering greatly. His parents brought this to my attention since they weren’t successful in getting him to stop.

Now I don’t think all video games are bad. It’s just that the majority of them do not have any educational value, and are about violence and all manner of undesirable behavior.

My approach to teaching children isn’t like most people’s. Rather than telling them what they can and can’t do, I ask them questions, how they feel about it, what their thoughts are. In this case, I asked John why he was playing the games. He said because everyone else at his school is playing them and that it is somewhat of a status symbol of how well you can play those games. He admitted that most of the games are very violent and teaching the wrong things, but was very attached to them. So I asked him, “John, if you had a child your age and you loved him very very much, would you allow him to play these games?” John was stunned. Nobody had ever asked him anything like this before. After some soul searching, John said that he would not want his son to play any of the games he was playing, because “they wouldn’t be good for him and they would be teaching him the wrong things.”

My next question to him was, “So, if you wouldn’t want your child to play these games, do you think it’s ok for you to play them?”

Again, a bewildered look. But with a smile he responded that it wasn’t good for him either.

And without me asking him anything further, the next day he brought his entire collection of video games. What a beautiful attitude! But not only that, a couple of days later he asked me if books worked the same way, that if you read bad books, will they influence him like video games. Without me having to say anything, he answered his own question and the following class he brought his collection of books that he considered “not good for me”.

So you see, no matter how young, how old, what belt level, every student is benefiting from training in his or her very own, very special way, and that is my greatest joy and my greatest reward in life.